This invention relates to titanium alloys, and more particularly to titanium alloys possessing improved combinations of strength, toughness and stress corrosion resistance. The alloys of this invention are especially useful in airframe structure applications.
Prior to 1965, the titanium alloy Ti-8Al-1Mo-1V was the primary titanium alloy under consideration for use in the U.S.A. supersonic transport. It was found, however, that this alloy is highly susceptible to a form of stress corrosion cracking. This cracking phenomenon is exhibited when a cracked specimen is simultaneously stressed and exposed to an aqueous environment and is particularly severe in salt water environments. Under a sustained stress as low as 15% of the tensile yield strength, crack propagation occurs until the specimen fractures completely. Because of this stress corrosion cracking phenomenon, Ti-8Al-1Mo-1V was abandoned for use in the SST program and Ti-6Al-4V became the primary structural alloy because of its better resistance to stress corrosion cracking. However, Ti-6Al-4V still showed susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking. This fact led to the development of "beta processing" which improved the resistance to stress corrosion cracking in Ti-6Al-4V. Beta processing involves annealing and/or hot working the material above the beta transus temperature. Beta-phase processing has improved the fracture properties of Ti-6Al-4V with little change in tensile properties. Further improvements in fracture properties as well as increased strength and greater metallurgical stability of titanium alloys were thought to be most readily obtainable through changes in alloy composition.
Although beta alloys combine high strength with good formability and, in some cases, good toughness and stress corrosion resistance, they inherently have low modulus and high density compared to alpha-beta type alloys. For this reason, it is an object of this invention to provide alpha-beta titanium alloys having low density and high modulus and exhibiting improved combinations of strength, toughness and stress corrosion resistance rendering them particularly useful for toughness-critical and strength-critical applications in both sheet gage and thick sections.